Archive for month: September, 2012

Counselling can be helpful toward getting a business back on track and profitable. Almost any company can benefit from a more objective and experienced set of eyes looking at their business. While counselling is not magic and will not make everything perfect, it can improve a business greatly. It can help streamline its procedures, and foster greater profitability. If you become involved in counselling, here are some of the top tips for making it work for counsellor and counselee alike.

Be Open-minded

If you have already decided the direction or the result of the counselling, you will miss information and opportunities. During counselling keep your eyes and you ears open. Be open to new perspectives or ideas. The alternative is just to keep the old view and that makes counselling less than useful. Each business will have things that look similar to other businesses, but they are, in fact, unique. No two businesses are alike just like no two business people are. Be ready to approach each counselling session with an open mind and attitude. You will do little without such an open mind.

Be Honest

Counselling is no time to hedge on candour. The point of counselling is an honest assessment of a business and its effectiveness. This is not the time to gloss over things and to try to put on a good face. The counsellor also needs to be honest about what he sees. Honesty is the essential cornerstone of transformative counselling. Without honesty, you may end up just moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic. The real problem might remain hidden and a solution never found. Strive for honesty in counselling.

Be Non-Judgmental

While this may seem contradictory to number two, there is a difference between pointing out flaws and getting into a “blame game”. A standard position to take in counselling is that everybody has being doing the best they could with what they had and how they understood things. It’s not necessary to condemn or blame to move beyond a problem. It’s the problem the business needs to attack and not the people who have been stuck in it. A non-judgmental environment eventually makes it easier to be honest.

Set Goals and Milestones

There’s an old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know when you’ve gotten there.” This is true of counselling. There should be goals and milestones. Without a concrete target to shoot at, there is nothing on which to focus. Without that focus, counselling can meander hopelessly around in spirals. Know what you want to do. Write it down. Know when it is time to quit counselling because you have clearly reached the goal.

Read, Read, Read

Read books.Watch videos. Listen to audio programs. Network. Reach out as much as you can. Even the best business person in the world does not know or understand everything about business. The business world changes every day. There is a constant cascade of new ideas and new tools for business people. It’s essential to keep up with changes to best of one’s ability. No matter whether you are the counsellor or counselee, part of the process is to continue to be proactive and grow.